FIREFIGHTER Muhammad Adib Mohd Kassim suffered multiple fractures on the right ribs and a collapsed lung when he was brought to hospital, the doctor who first treated him told the coroner’s court today.

Dr Nantha Kumeran, 39, who was on call at the Subang Jaya Medical Centre emergency room said when Adib was brought in, he immediately noticed bruising on the right side of upper chest wall on his body.

“When I touched that right side, I could hear a cracking sound, it felt like broken ribs.” he said.

He also said his initial suspicion was that it was pneumothorax (a collapsed lung).

“In my opinion, these seemed like impact wounds, it was more impact wounds rather than gripping wounds,” he said. 

Dr Nantha also told the court that he did not see any other bruising or marks on the Adib’s abdomen other than on the right side of his body.

“I examined his face, there was no marks on the neck or the face, both lower limbs and upper limbs had no fractures,” he added.

Dr Nantha said he then called for a chest X-ray and intubation for Adib as he was struggling to breathe.

“He was struggling to breathe, so we put a tube externally from the mouth to the trachea, to help him breathe externally or manually,” he said.

“We had to put in a chest tube because his levels of oxygen were low.”

He also told the court that Adib’s blood pressure was low and he was unresponsive.

“He was only making sounds and his level of consciousness was low, so we set up and IV drip to get his blood pressure levels up.”

Dr Nantha also showed the court the X-ray image of Adib’s ribcage and lungs that were taken when he was admitted.

The doctor said the second, third, fourth and fifth ribs suffered fractures and also showed that the lung had suffered an abrasion.

“Normally, the lung is black in (an) X-ray, but you can see here there are whitish patches all over the lung. Which means an injury to the lung,” he explained when he was questioned by deputy public prosecutor Zhafran Rahim Hamzah on why an X-ray was needed.

“From the injury on the lung, it seems like blunt-force trauma causing the lung injuries,” he said.

He also told coroner Rofiah Mohamad Mansor that there was a leaking of air beneath the skin due to the punctured lung.

“After the victim was intubated we noticed his chest wall started to swell up, the abdomen, scrotum and face were swollen . We suspected leaking of air below the skin,” he said.

“The leak was from the lung, air was escaping the lung,” he said.

When asked if there were any other marks or bruises on Adib’s body at the time, Nantha said he had only noticed the bruising on the right side of his chest.

“I checked his whole body at the time but there were no other injuries, there were no marks, just the aforementioned bruising,” he said.

The lawyer for Adib’s family, Kamarulzaman A. Wahab, then showed pictures of Adib to the doctor to see if he could identify other marks on the victims body.

“Yes, I can see lines visible now, I can’t tell you what caused it. But I saw him that night there was only one patch on his right side,” he said when the lawyer asked if he had seen those marks that night.

“I checked but did not notice those marks you are showing me now, We didn’t check all the injuries. At the time minor abrasions and the chest were the issue. I didn’t see other injuries that were not life threatening,” he said.

He said he noted all the injuries he saw on Adib’s body that night.

“My concern was to save him from life-threatening injuries, he did not have any other injuries at that time,” he added.

Dr Nantha is the 13th witness in the inquest into the fireman’s death.

The inquest was ordered as there were no conclusive findings in the probe into how Adib was injured during the riots at the Seafield Sri Mahamariamman Temple in Subang Jaya on November 27 and 28 last year.

Police investigations revealed that there could be two possibilities as to what caused the 24-year-old’s death: either he was beaten by a mob or was run over by a fire truck.

Adib was hospitalised for three weeks, and despite regaining consciousness and showing signs of recovery, he died on December 17 due to lung failure.

The inquest continues. – February 21, 2019.